Cup fever in Elversberg – SVE and Mainz battle for a place in the next round

Highlights follow in turn: SV Elversberg is playing its first real home game of the season tomorrow (Saturday). Bundesliga side 1. FSV Mainz 05 are the visitors at the renovated URSAPHARM Arena for the DFB Cup match.

Following the defeat by Hansa Rostock, there is now plenty of anticipation for the cup firecracker match against 1. FSV Mainz 05. Bo Svensson’s team should be forewarned, as they were guests in Saarland for the 2021/22 cup opener and had a hard time against our Elv, who were still playing in the Regionalliga Südwest at the time. Dominik Kohr, who was on the pitch for more than 120 minutes for that encounter, remembers the match all too well: ‘That was not an easy game, as even then SVE were a strong, well-positioned team’, said the 29-year-old, looking back at their ‘perhaps also rather lucky’ advancement in Elversberg in August 2021. ‘Of course, I hope that this will all be settled in the first 90 minutes and that we will head into the next round with a good performance, but it will not be an easy task’, the midfielder explained.

Of course, our coach Horst Steffen and his team want to make this as difficult as possible for the Bundesliga team. Their performance last year against Bayer Leverkusen in particular offers some confidence: ‘I hope that we will be able to pick up from our performance last season, keep up the pace, and perhaps even create an upset’, Steffen said at the press conference before the game. However, it is clear to all involved how difficult this task will be. ‘Recently Mainz have been playing using a different system to two years ago, but their intensity and football skill have not changed. We can expect a challenge on Saturday’, Steffen continues: ‘Mainz play in a very organised and intensive way. We will have to push our performance back to the limit to drive our luck.’ 

Everything in our new URSAPHARM Arena will be ready for a brand-new cup spectacle – let’s go for it!